IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 07 | Jul-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 343
FABRICATION AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF STIR CAST
Al-Si12Cu/B
4
C COMPOSITES

T.Raviteja
1
, N.Radhika
2
, R.Raghu
3

1
PG Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Tamilnadu, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Tamilnadu, India
3
Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract
The present study was made to understand the fabrication and mechanical properties of Al-Si12Cu/B
4
C Metal Matrix Composites.
The composites were fabricated by reinforcing B
4
C particles with varying wt % of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, using stir casting process. The
performance of the composites was compared with the alloy to study the improvement in mechanical properties that has been
imparted by the reinforcement particles to the composites. The microstructure was examined on the composite specimens using
optical microscope to confirm the homogeneous dispersion of reinforcement particles in the matrix. Mechanical properties such
as hardness and tensile strength were tested on the composite using Brinell hardness tester and computerized Universal Testing
Machine respectively. The results revealed that the B
4
C particles were homogeneously distributed in the composite. The hardness
and tensile test results showed that, by increasing wt % of reinforcement particles in the matrix, hardness and tensile strength of
the composites was improved to 6.97 % and 33 % respectively compare to base alloy.

Keywords: Metal Matrix Composite, Stir casting, Microstructure, Mechanical properties, Hardness and Tensile
strength.
--------------------------------------------------------------------***----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. INTRODUCTION
Metal Matrix composites (MMCs) are the combination of
two or more distinct phases that has improved properties
than the monolithic alloy. Aluminium MMCs are greatly
developing in the recent years due to their low cost and light
weight, which replaces the high cost bronze and cast alloys
in several applications [1]. Due to its unique combination of
properties such as high specific strength, high corrosive
resistance, high elastic modulus, good thermal stability, high
hardness, high wear resistance, superior strength to weight
ratio and light weight, its usage increased drastically in the
automobile, aerospace and defense sectors [2].

Stir casting process is employed to fabricate aluminium
composites with varying wt% (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30) of
Silicon Carbide (SiC) particles and inferred that uniform
dispersion of reinforcement particles is successfully attained
through this method, and also stated this method as the low
cost effective method for fabrication of MMCs among
various conventional casting techniques [3]. Microstructural
observation is done on the stir cast aluminium composites
and interpreted that wettability is important factor in
achieving uniform dispersion of the reinforcement particles
in the matrix without agglomeration, which helps in
improvement of mechanical properties of the composites
[4]. Selection of type of reinforcement also contributes in
increasing the mechanical properties such as hardness and
tensile strength of the composites. Soft reinforcements
increase the tensile strength and decrease the hardness of the
composite, whereas hard reinforcements increase the tensile
strength as well as the hardness of the aluminium
composites [5].

Hardness of the Aluminium Nitride (AlN) reinforced stir
cast aluminium composite is tested and concluded that,
overall hardness of the composites increased with increasing
the wt % of AlN particles, as this is due to the hardness of
the AlN particles that has been embedded uniformly in the
composite [6]. Effect of Alumina (Al
2
O
3
) particles on the
tensile strength of the aluminium composite is investigated
and interpreted that the Al
2
O
3
particles increases tensile
strength of the composite up to 10% [7].

There are numerous studies found out on mechanical
behaviour of particles reinforced MMCs but very few
studies only have been explored on the mechanical
properties of B
4
C particles reinforced MMCs. Thus the
present study deals with the fabrication of Al-Si12Cu alloy
reinforced with B
4
C particles with varying wt % of 2, 4, 6, 8
and 10, and analyzing its microstructure and mechanical
behaviour.

2. MATERIAL SELECTION
The materials chosen for the fabrication of the composite are
Al-Si12Cu alloy as base matrix and B
4
C particle as
reinforcement. This alloy is chosen because of its
applications in pistons, pulleys, sheaves and bearings. The
B
4
C particle is selected for reinforcing with the composite
due to its high hardness. The density of the alloy and B
4
C
particles are 2.71 g/cm
3
and 2.51 g/cm
3
respectively. B
4
C
particles with size of 33 microns are added as particulate to
IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 07 | Jul-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 344
the composite for the varying wt % of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. The
chemical composition of Al-Si12Cu aluminium alloy is
shown in Table 1.

Table -1: Chemical composition of Al-Si12Cu aluminium
alloy
Chemical
composition
%
Al 83.39
Si 10.9
Fe 0.527
Cu 1.31
Mn 0.113
Mg 1.05
Cr 0.0065
Ni 2.32
Zn 0.275
Sn 0.0590
Ti 0.0340
Pb 0.00
Ca 0.0065

3. FABRICATION OF COMPOSITES
Al-Si12Cu/B
4
C MMCs with varying wt % of 2, 4, 6, 8 and
10 are fabricated by using stir cast process. Aluminium
billets are loaded in the graphite crucible and placed in an
open hearth furnace. Coal is charged around the crucible in
the furnace which produces heat on burning. This allows the
aluminium billets to melt. One side of the furnace is
connected with an electrically operated blower which sucks
the air from the atmosphere and sends to the furnace for the
continuous generation of heat. Once attaining the molten
metal condition of the alloy, the preheated B
4
C particles are
added to the molten metal and the stirring action is done
simultaneously for 5 min to achieve the homogeneous
distribution of the reinforcement particles in the composite.
Then the molten metal is poured at 800 C into the
cylindrical sand moulds having holes dimensions of
diameter 25 mm and length 150 mm. After pouring the
molten metal into the moulds, it kept for some time to
solidify. After solidification, composite specimens are
withdrawn from the mould. The same procedure is followed
for all composites with varying wt %. The schematic
illustration of the fabrication process is shown in Figure 1.


Fig -1: Schematic illustration of fabrication process

4. MICROSTRUCTURE EXAMINATION
The specimens for microstructure examination are machined
from the cylindrical cast specimens. Initially, the samples
are grinded in bench grinding machine to remove the burs
and polished in belt grinder for the rough surface finish.
Then the specimen is polished with emery sheets of grade
1/0 and 2/0. Finally it is polished using disc polisher with
diluted Al
2
O
3
to remove all the scratches on the surface to
get good surface finish. The polished specimens are etched
with general aluminium agent prior to examination using
Zeiss Axiovert 25 CA Inverted Metallurgical Microscope.
The microstructural examination is done for various
magnifications on all the composite specimens (2, 4, 6, 8,
and 10 wt %) for observing the homogeneous distribution of
the reinforcement particles in the composite.

5. HARDNESS TEST
Macro hardness test is performed on alloy and all the
composite with different compositions (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 wt
%) by using the Brinell hardness tester. The specimens are
grinded and polished using emery sheets. The tester is
equipped with hardened steel ball having diameter of 10 mm
for producing indentation on the specimen surface. The
specimen is placed on the test platform and the indenter is
allowed to touch the specimen surface. A minor load of 10
kgf is applied on the specimen surface by operating the lever
to locate the position for producing indentation. Then the
major load of 1000 kgf is applied on the located point of the
specimen for 30 seconds. Then the load is released and the
specimen is removed from the machine. The hardness is
tested at four different places on the surface of all the
composite specimens and the diameter of the indentation is
measured by microscopic screw gauge. The Brinell
Hardness Number (BHN) is calculated and the average
value is taken as the hardness value of the specimen.

6. TENSILE TEST
The specimens (Figure 2) are machined as per ASTM (E8-
04) standard from the composites specimens. The machined
specimens are fixed in between the jaws of the computerized
Universal Testing Machine (UTM). Input data of the
specimens is fed into the UTM software. The load is applied
gradually on the two ends of the specimen by pulling. The
specimen gets broken after the formation of neck. Then the
specimen is removed from the machine. The test results are
obtained through the software in the graphical form. The
specimen before and after tensile test is shown in Figure 3
(a) and (b).


Fig -2: Specimen prepared for tensile test

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 07 | Jul-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 345



Fig -3: Specimen (a) before test and (b) after test

7. RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS
The microstructure evaluation and the mechanical properties
of the composites are detailed in the further sections.

7.1 Microstructure Evaluation
The microstructure of the Al-Si12Cu/B
4
C (2, 4 and 10 wt
%) composites are shown in Figure 4(a), (b) and (c). The
homogeneous distribution of the reinforcement particles in
the composite is observed due to the greater wettability of
the B
4
C particles with the aluminium alloy. This greater
wettability of B
4
C with the aluminium alloy might be due to
the formation of liquid B
2
O
3
layer on the B
4
C particles. This
liquid layer forms above certain temperature on the surface
of B
4
C and the wettability gets increased as there is a liquid
liquid reaction, whereas the same pattern is resulted [8].
From the microstructure (Figure 4 (c)), it is observed that
white area is aluminium matrix and remaining dark grey
area are the B
4
C reinforcement particles. The better
interfacial bonding between the matrix and reinforcement
particles is observed because of less porosity, whereas same
behaviour is observed [9].







Fig -4: Microstructure of the Al-Si12Cu/B
4
C composites
(a) 2 wt % (b) 4 wt % and (c) 10 wt %

7.2 Mechanical Properties
The mechanical properties such as hardness and tensile
strength of the Al-Si12Cu/B
4
C composites is discussed
briefly in the following sections

7.2.1 Hardness of the Composites
The hardness results of the Al-Si12Cu alloy and Al-Si12Cu/
B
4
C (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 wt %) composites are shown in Chart
1. Hardness value is increased by increasing the wt % of
B
4
C reinforcement particles in the composites. By adding
the reinforcement particles to the composites, surface area of
the reinforcement gets increased and grain sizes of the
matrix get decreased. The presence of such hard
reinforcement particles on the surface resists the plastic
deformation of the material. The strength of the grain
boundaries increases to maximum level and dislocation of
atoms are decreased by increasing the wt % of
reinforcement, which gives strength to the matrix and
thereby hardness of the composite gets increased. The same
phenomenon is observed [10]. The 10 wt % B
4
C reinforced
composite yields better hardness than unreinforced alloy by
6.97 %.
IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Volume: 03 Issue: 07 | Jul-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 346


Chart -1: Hardness of Al-Si12Cu alloy and Al-Si12Cu/B
4
C
composites

7.2.2 Tensile Strength of the Composites
The tensile strength of the Al-Si12Cu alloy and Al-Si12Cu/
B
4
C composites is shown in Chart 2. From Chart 2, it is
observed that ultimate tensile strength is increased by
increasing the percentage of B
4
C particles in the composite.
This is due to the better interfacial bonding between the
matrix and the reinforcement which transfers and distributes
the load from the matrix to the reinforcement. Therefore the
reinforcement particle tends to bear the entire load that has
been acted upon the matrix. The tensile strength is observed
to get increased drastically up to 8 wt % of reinforcement
and after that, amount of increase in tensile strength gets
reduced as this might be due to the formation of clustering
in a matrix, same pattern is resulted [11]. The 10 wt % B
4
C
particles reinforced composite shows an increase of 33 %
tensile strength more than the Al-Si12Cu alloy.


Chart -2: Tensile strength of Al-Si12Cu alloy and Al-
Si12Cu/B
4
C composites

8. CONCLUSIONS
Al-Si12Cu/B
4
C metal matrix composites with varying wt %
of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 are successfully fabricated using stir
casting process. The homogeneous distribution of the
reinforcement particles in the composite is attained due to
the greater wettability of the B
4
C particles with the
aluminium alloy. By increasing the wt % of B
4
C particles in
the aluminium matrix, hardness of the composites gets
increased than the alloy due to the resistance offered by the
reinforcement particles to the plastic deformation. The
tensile strength of the composites increases greatly up to 8
wt % of reinforcement and after that, level of increasing in
tensile strength gets reduced due to the clustering of
reinforcement particles. The results obtained from this study
can be used effectively for development of the structural and
automotive components that requires better mechanical
properties.

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80
81
83
84
85
86
76
78
80
82
84
86
88
0 2 4 6 8 10
Reinforcement (wt %)
H
a
r
d
n
e
s
s

(
B
H
N
)
92
107
116
126
136 138
0
50
100
150
0 2 4 6 8 10
Reinforcement (wt %)
T
e
n
s
i
l
e

s
t
r
e
n
g
t
h

(
M
P
a
)